Shippo quietly raised $20 million last spring

Shippo, the business shipping platform, says it has raised a $20 million Series B, under the radar last spring.

Shippo, the business shipping platform, says it has raised a $20 million Series B, under the radar last spring. It was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Union Square Ventures, SoftTech VC and others.

The company chose not to announce it until now, which is something we've been seeing more with startups. Sometimes it's for competitive reasons and sometimes it's for timing the perfect moment for publicity (although the latter is not advisable because journalists tend to be more focused on recent news).

But it's worth noting because there's been a lot of interest in Shippo, which works with eBay, Ipsy, Martha Stewart and 15,000 other customers to make e-commerce more efficient for businesses. The company is touting 71% year-over-year growth per customer since last year.

Through its API and online app, merchants are able to compare rates across USPS, FedEX, UPS, and others. Customers can also print labels, track packages and automate paperwork.

CEO Laura Behrens Wu started the company out of frustration with the time and effort it took to ship things. She said that the goal of Shippo is to "provide the best shipping experience to the end customer," adding that "Amazon is setting the bar higher."

Shippo makes money off of every package it ships. Customers are charged either a per label fee or a flat fee for a given number of shipments.

The company wouldn't share revenue numbers, but says it is hoping to benefit from what it believes will be a $4 trillion e-commerce marketplace in three years. (Right now, it's less than half that.)

Yet Shippo has a lot of competition. There's Pitney Bowes and Stamps.com. Amazon is also working with businesses.